Oleander
Oleander is a black unicorn from the forests of The Woodlands. In her possession, she wields a demonic book called the Unicornomicon that holds a dark, sentient entity named the FHTNG. Appearance Unlike the rest of her clan, Oleander's coat is black due to tampering with dark magic. Biography When the call for a Key Keeper finally reached the unreachable ears of the Unicorns deep in the shady forests of The Woodland, it was ignored. The reclusive and reverent Order of the Horn does not participate in violence of any kind. They believe that Light Magic will ultimately prevail, though they did not presume to know how. This was not good enough for one Unicorn — and this surprised no one. Oleander has been long known as the Order of the Horn’s resident rebel. Frustrated with the closed mindedness of her people’s philosophies, she longed for progress and new ideas, and she found these in a book. A book of DARK MAGIC. She believes, that harnessed for the right reasons, dark magic is just as good as light magic. But the use of the book and its spells has marked her. Unlike the rest of her clan, her white coat has turned dark and now they turn deaf ears whenever she tries to speak her mind. It’s no matter. She does not need their permission to save Fœnum. And when she does, she’ll prove that darkness is as good as light. Personality Oleander has been long known as the Order of the Horn’s resident rebel. Frustrated with the close-mindedness of her people’s philosophies, she longed for progress and new ideas. She found these in a book of dark magic. She believes, that harnessed for the right reasons, dark magic can be used for good. Color Palettes See Oleander/Color Palettes. NPC Names See Arcade NPC Names '' Abilities & Fighting Style Oleander uses every trick in her demonic book to devastate her opponents. As she reads, her power grows and a horrifying creature makes its presence known! Initially Oleander only has enough magic to cast one type of projectile. Her gameplay transforms completely when she gains additional knowledge from reading her book, allowing teleportation, casting of spells mid air and explosive traps! Playing As Oleander In practice, Oleander is a well rounded fighter with a more heavy emphasis toward zoning with some very basic puppeteering thrown in for flavor. While her moveset certainly makes her capable of some pretty stellar combos, a lot of her moves tend to feel most comfortable at mid-range and she has a number of tools that let her keep her distance. Her Normal Heavy attacks in particular are extremely useful for providing a buffer between you and your opponent if you're trying to space them out. Her "Smite" is extremely useful as a jump-in; in fact, it is one of the safest jump-in's in the game being +3 on block and creating an absolutely ''enormous hitbox. There are not very many players who are privy to these facts and will attempt to punish, however it leaves plenty of time for the opponent to attack Oleander. What makes Oleander stand out from the rest of the cast is her use of the Unicornomicon and her own magic to perform attacks and maneuvers that are extremely versatile. Chapter Trap lets her burn magic to rip out a page of the Unicornomicon and create a burning trap. These traps can be used either as stage hazards to deter your opponent from gap closing, or they can be thrown in their face during a combo. Her other zoning tool is Fel Spark, and it is also a very good tool to use both offensively and defensively. Used defensively against Velvet's icicles and snowballs, you can cancel out her attack without taking chip damage from blocking. It is also useful against an opponent attempting to gap close when Oleander is out of magic. While her neutral game and zoning capabilities are very strong, one of her primary weaknesses is mobility. Her forward and back dash is very short and does not sustain like it does for characters like Paprika and Arizona, however her aerial maneuvering is relatively decent, being one of the few characters with a double-jump that can be used to cancel into attacks. To make up for her lack of a decent dash, Oleander has one more very powerful technique in her arsenal, her Teleport which comes in four delicious flavors: one to teleport her in front of her opponent, one to teleport her behind her opponent, one to teleport away and a magic teleport which can be used as a surprise attack. Keep in mind that Oleander's closer attacks are one of her weaknesses. Fred Special mention should be made of Fred (summoned with her Lv.2 Super). When Fred is on screen, almost all of Oleander's weaknesses are gone and the possibilities become ridiculous. For the duration of the summon, he will follow Oleander around the field. It is worth noting that if Oleander teleports when Fred is on screen, he will not teleport with her. He will instead travel over to her, so keep this in mind if you use a teleport to gap close for a combo. It is also worth noting that Fred can attack while Oleander is attacking, hence the "very basic puppeteering" mentioned earlier. Playing Against Oleander Playing against Oleander really boils down to either getting in her face and keeping up pressure or out-zoning her, which can be a tricky prospect. Her Fel Spark fireballs will be her primary zoning tool, but always be ready for a surprise teleport as she will likely use it to initiate a combo. While the teleports can be annoying, the voice line used for each one is different and can be used as a reliable tell to predict where she will be. If she teleports in front of you to gap close, she is likely going to follow up with a combo. If she teleports behind you to gap close, they probably just figured out how to teleport and think they're being sneaky, so punish accordingly. The recovery after her back teleport will leave her open to attack, so if she does that, gap close and don't let her use that distance to zone you. If Oleander burns magic to teleport and you're in a position to defend or she whiffs, then you should definitely ''be ready to punish as the recovery of the attack is ''very long and will let you get a free combo in. Without Fred on screen, Oleander struggles when an opponent is in her face. The only real option she has to create distance between herself and her opponent is her grab attack that sends her opponent across the screen. If you're able to keep up pressure, then she should be no trouble. If you let her zone you though, you're going to have a bad time. Matchups Vs. Velvet Like Oleander, Velvet wants distance. Unlike Oleander however, it is even more important since her close-range options are even more limited. Wait for the icicles and spikesicles, teleport, then go to town. Remember, when Velvet summons her ranged attacks, she is wide open. She's not the worst matchup for Oleander, but she can be tricky to deal with if you let her keep you zoned. Teleport to close and focus on mid-range. Vs. Tianhuo At range, Tianhuo is your plaything. Tianhuo is a classic rushdown character with a strong focus on aerial combos, and you have significant anti-air capabilities with your Chapter Traps and with Fred. If you lay a Chapter Trap, your opponent will not have many options to get around it. However, do not let her get close otherwise there there will be no hope for escape. Keep her zoned at all costs with your traps and Fel Sparks. Against Tianhuo, you will either completely dominate or get completely thrashed. Vs. Arizona Arizona is the anti-Oleander in that she is a generalist with a focus on close-range beatdowns. Like Tianhuo, keep Arizona zoned with your Chapter Traps and Fel Spark, but also be extremely careful to stay out of range of her lasso, otherwise you will have a bad time. If you know the lasso is coming, use your teleport to get in close and punish. Vs. Paprika Paprika is always a pain to deal with, but with Oleander, those pain points get even worse. Paprika's charge ability makes closing on Oleander trivial and renders her Chapter Traps absolutely useless, so instead, focus on zoning with Fel Spark and keeping her on the defensive. As soon as you get a hit confirm, do not let up on her under any circumstances. Vs. Pom Pom is a difficult character to play in general, but she can be an absolute monster in the right hands and can easily out-zone Oleander. Adopt the same tactics against Pom that you would against Velvet, but be sure to watch out for that Pilot Pup as it is one of the strongest overheads in the game. Bait out her bark charge attack then teleport in for the combo. Trivia * Oleander is based off of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic's Twilight Sparkle. In addition to wielding a book, she retains the same projectile, teleport, and trap attacks as well as having to stop to read her book to gain Magic. ** To separate her from My Little Pony franchise, Oleander has goat hooves and is more reminiscent of an antiquated unicorn than the modern horned horse depiction. * Oleander will occassionally say "BAMF!" when teleporting, a refrence to Nightcrawler from X-Men comics.